


Decision

by veivei



Series: Drown in Ashes [2]
Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Murder, in the universe of another fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 08:24:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10987158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veivei/pseuds/veivei
Summary: Kururi whimpered and Aoba’s heart broke./ This starts after the 6th chapter of Drown in Ashes- http://archiveofourown.org/works/10596447/





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This happens in the version of the Drown in Ashes universe in which Aoba killed Izaya by stabbing him in the back.
> 
> I'm not convinced anyone needs it but I will write a little something. It's not particularly elaborate though.

Aoba had a good grasp of human anatomy in the most practical of senses. If he was going to attack any part of anyone, being his meager if cruel self, it would have better been something soft, vulnerable and within reach. That of course sounded as if he was supposed to kick everyone he fought in the crotch and indeed that happened a lot. In a way, stabbing someone in the back was the same. Just a few degrees different.

Aoba cursed his efficiency at wringing maximum damage out of minimum force in that particular case though. When he looked it up later the probability of fatally stabbing someone like that apparently hovered at a few percent. And yet, he’d done it. Just like he had once said he would, he had killed Orihara Izaya. Of course, he had never meant it quite like that. But fate didn’t care.

The bullet from the gun Izaya had fired right before dying pierced the wall, producing a hole through which a single ray of light penetrated the darkness of the room.

Ran flicked his lighter to see what had happened.

“Little brother…” There was mild astonishment in his voice when he took in the scene in front of him.

“Now let Kururi go.” Aoba said to Kida over Izaya’s fallen body with the knife stuck in its back before Ran promptly kicked his legs from under him.

What followed wasn’t exactly a beating. It was just having his face stomped on with a boot.

“Hopefully they’ll catch you, you sick brat.” Ran muttered while at it before running away, taking the light of his lighter with him, apparently having realized this was far from an ideal place for him to be at with his criminal record once the police arrived.

In the resulting near darkness, Aoba hauled himself up from the ground and spilled out the broken teeth. He touched his face, feeling for permanent damage, but didn't really know if it was there or not.

The door opened again and an unfamiliar man entered the shed. He assessed the situation in the light of his own lighter.

Kida was on his feet now, the bloodied baseball bat in his hand. Whom he might have wanted to hit with it was anyone's guess.

“Orihara here’s dead.” The man informed no one in particular, having crouched next to the body and not seeing it breathe. 

Kururi whimpered from where she was and Aoba’s heart broke.

He had just killed her brother right in front of her. He doubted it mattered a lot that he’d done it to save her.

“I’ll take the gun and go and you’ll never hear from me again.” The man assured frantically, looking up at Kida approaching and at the baseball bat in his hand.

Aoba realized in that moment what a mess he had really landed himself into. Dozen or so witnesses on the sports grounds had seen him go to this place where now there was a dead body, an injured girl who was a witness to him committing murder and a gun.

“I’ll take the gun. I’m here for the gun.” The man repeated before snatching it forcefully out of Izaya’s stilling fingers and scurrying away and out of the shed.

“Kida-senpai.” Aoba spoke up respectfully in the near darkness only illuminated by the light from the bullet hole in the wall again, hoping to establish some common ground. His speech was slurred by the loss of teeth and the cuts in his mouth. “I killed him for you.” He said. “And I presume you intend to leave now? Then take that knife with you.”

“She knows us both anyway.” Kida motioned to Kururi who was now crying silently.

Looking at her, Aoba noted how she was very pale and her leg looked really bad. 

Kida walked up to Izaya’s body and yanked the knife out of his back. He coughed, vomit catching in his throat at the resulting sight, but kept it in.

Aoba was still staring at Kururi, wondering if she could bleed out. It was good she was conscious. For her health. But not for his situation down the line if she was going to talk.

Kida took a hold of himself, hid the knife he had taken out of Izaya's body, picked up the bat and left.

Aoba’s injured face was starting to hurt but that didn’t seem important at the moment at all.

He figured it made no sense for him to run. Too many people knew he’d gone to this place and there was no way for him to run really far. He had some money and some connections but not the kind something like this would have required. 

He could hear the sirens in the distance now. The police had sure taken their sweet time to arrive.

He pulled out his phone and called an ambulance for Kururi, doubting anyone had done that already. 

Looking around, he thought how explaining what had happened at this place to anyone was sure going to take a lot of effort.


	2. Chapter 2

“Kururi, can you hear me?” Aoba asked, squeezing her hand to catch her attention.

He chose to ignore Izaya's body behind him and avoided looking down at her leg and the blood on the floor to keep himself from panicking.

In the near darkness, Kururi shivered and became more alert, her eyes focusing on his face.

“Fine.” She whispered between sobs.

“You’re not fine. But hang in there.”

“Why?”

He wasn’t sure what she meant but it was usually fine answering anything that vaguely fit and keeping the conversation going.

“It seemed like a way to make Kida let you go. That’s why I killed him.” He explained. “I think I’m kind of stupid.”

“Not stupid.” She whispered.

Aoba chose not to argue though risking murder conviction and prison at sixteen with his particular looks to save a girl who had kissed him once wasn’t the pinnacle of forward thinking. Especially when one did it by killing her own brother.

“Kida killed.” Kururi offered, startling Aoba with speaking up at all again.

What he had actually awaited after killing her brother in front of her was lifelong hate and ignorance or disdain, both from her and her sister. That would have actually been the expected reaction in a normal family.

“What?” He asked uncertainly.

“Both tell.” She nodded.

“You want us both to tell the police he did it?” Aoba made sure.

That might have just worked if their versions were consistent and if he were lucky and some other kind of evidence didn’t refute their claims.

She nodded.

“You would lie like that for a guy who killed your brother?” 

“Wouldn’t you?”

That was quite an achievement in succinct communication, Aoba noted. Of course, if it was his brother who had gotten killed he wouldn’t have cared either way because the bastard had long since deserved to die. What did she know though about his hate for his brother, other than seeing Ran beat him up now. It was not something he had ever discussed with her or Mairu or anyone else.

She reached out towards him and touched the bruise forming on his face.

“So it was that bad?” He wondered. 

He'd heard how Orihara sisters had proclaimed not to care for their brother but he had never taken it that seriously. Also, Izaya had shown up to help them which indicated some commitment on his part at least. Not something Ran would have done for him.

Who was he to argue with Kururi’s decision though.

The door opened.

“Lie.” Kururi repeated with a nod.

\---

Aoba gave his version of events to the police with a poker face, hoping Kururi would keep her end of the deal. He invented details that would have explained how Kida had both broken Kururi’s leg and stabbed Izaya in the back, assuming Kururi was going to barely speak, just like she always did, and not give anyone much to work with. On top of that, she must have been in the hospital which would have provided her with a good excuse to barely talk to anyone.

His heart skipped a beat when the knife was brought in, sealed in a plastic bag. There was no denying he had touched it. But so had Kida so it wasn’t a lost cause. The police even having it indicated they also had him. Aoba wasn't sure if that was good news or not.

When he was finally let go, his mother was waiting for him. 

He was ready to apologize to her for having trouble with the police like his brother but she just hugged him. After stiffening in her embrace initially, he decided to allow it this once.

\---

A few days later Mairu showed up at school for the first time since the incident. 

Aoba tried to steer clear of her but she confronted him at the start of the lunch break. 

“Look, I’m sorry for locking you in that classroom.” He apologized right away. “And for what happened.”

He had no clue if Kururi had told her who had really killed their brother so he’d stayed vague and forgone the condolences.

“Were the charges against you dropped, Aochii?” Mairu asked. “Kuru-nee worries about you a lot.”

“Yes. Tell her not to worry.”

“You have to go visit her with me after school and tell her yourself. And buy her nice flowers, too.”

“I guess.”

“Will your face heal?” She inquired, poking his swollen cheek with her finger. “It’d be quite a waste if it doesn’t. You were really cute.”

She didn’t seem any different but Aoba felt strange hanging out with her after what had happened.

After school she picked out the flowers she wanted him to buy herself and led the way to the hospital.

“Is Kururi fine?” He asked her on the way to Kururi’s room. “After what she’s seen there?”

“She said it was dark.” Mairu answered indifferently. 

“Don’t you two care at all?” He asked exasperatedly.

“You mean about Iza-nii? Aochii, you of all people…” She sighed. "You killed him."

His blood ran cold.

“Sure, Iza-nii couldn’t be happy dying stabbed in the back by a high schooler. And what you did doesn’t impress me either. But if it was him or Kuru-nee, the choice would have been obvious to me, just like it apparently was to you. That’s why you’re off the hook. But don’t ever dare breaking Kuru-nee’s heart.”

\---

When Aoba entered Kururi's hospital room, she was sitting in bed, reading something for school.

“Glad.” She greeted him.

“I’ve brought you flowers. Mairu chose.”

“Thank you.” 

He put the flowers into a vase with some other bouquets that were already there.

“How’s your leg?” He asked.

“Fine.”

The injury was covered up with a comforter and he didn’t pry. She was not going to say anything more either way.

“Problems?” She asked him, looking him in the eye.

“Because of what happened? No, I’m fine. It seems the two of us have succeeded at framing Kida for it all. I guess it serves him right for what he did to you, too.” Aoba said, looking at her leg pointedly. “Thanks for helping me, Kururi-chan.”

“Owed.”

“I don’t think you owed me anything after I killed your brother.”

“Like?” She said uncertainly.

“Your taste isn’t so great." Aoba sighed. "For a myriad of reasons. But I guess I like you, too.”

She smiled at him.

Apparently neither she nor her sister were particularly sane. And that might have been the reason why they got along with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To recap: Mikado's dead, Izaya's dead, Anri's in a coma, Kida's going to prison but at least Aoba is vaguely happy (?) in a way.
> 
> Guess who's my favorite character.


End file.
